The present invention relates generally to industrial and agricultural vehicles which have roll over protective structures associated therewith and more particularly to an improved enclosure for isolating the operator's compartment of the vehicle from the elements.
In recent years, federal regulations have made it mandatory to include some type of protective structure around the operator's compartment of a vehicle to protect the operator from injury should the vehicle be overturned. In order to comply with these federal regulations, each individual protective structure must be approved by appropriate agencies before it can be adopted for a particular machine. Each time there is a change to such protective structure, which may be of even minimal significance, it is necessary to have the structure reapproved for future use. In addition, any time there is any change in the structural integrity of the protective structure, such as a hole drilled in the framework that forms the protective structure, the protective structure no longer meets the federal requirements.
To meet these requirements, industrial and agricultural vehicles are presently furnished with some type of roll over protective structure as standard equipment. However, should a particular customer desire an enclosed operator's station, a customer must order a specific type of roll over protective structure which incorporates the enclosure for the operator's station. At the present time, most such roll over protective structures are constructed as separate items and then are attached to the remainder of the vehicle frame. Therefore, if a customer purchases a certain unit such as an open roll over protective structure as standard equipment when the vehicle is purchased and subsequently decides that an enclosed cab is desirable or necessary, the customer must remove a portion of the original equipment which must be discarded and results in a portion of the original purchase price being a wasted expenditure.
Another problem encountered with roll over protective structures is that when a customer decides to order a vehicle with an enclosed cab that also incorporates the roll over protective structure, such units do not have the capability of readily being converted to an open structure for the operator's compartment.